Merry Christmas!

Hope your Christmas was this full of joy! Merry Christmas from the Boskovich Family.

Christmas Eve

Our lovely friend Nell invited us to her neighborhood Christmas Eve party and look who showed up! Amelia and Luke's eyes nearly popped out of their little heads when Santa walked through the door with a big Ho Ho Ho! They both just stared and slowly backed up near me. Santa luckily had read all the kids lists and had just what they wanted in his sack, labeled for each child. Luke just kept saying, "Mommy, I can't believe Santa remembered I wanted Bolt." It was so cute to see their reactions and how in awe they were. We had lots of yummy food, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus complete with a birthday cake and then it was home for naps before church. Thankfully they both slept because Christmas Eve church was a little longer than normal and I had the bright idea to keep Luke with us and not put him in the nursery that night. They behaved pretty well but their were lots of whispered threats of Santa not coming if they don't behave. The last song was a candlelight version of "Silent Night" during which Luke tried to blow out the whole congregations' candles like they were birthday candles.

Barbara has come all the way from Wisconsin to stay with us for a couple of weeks over Christmas. I am so thankful Barbara is here to help keep the kids busy now that I am in full out waddling mode.

When we got home from church it was time for new Christmas jammies! Look how excited they were , they look like they are going to burst out of their seats. By the time we went outside to sprinkle the reindeer food, got together a cookie plate for Santa and got them "nestled all snug in their beds" it was very late.

Pageants and Parties

Amelia and Luke worked hard on their gingerbread house. Some candy even made it onto the house instead of in their tummies!

Amelia's Christmas party at school. They made these Rudolph hats and elf hats that were so cute. The kids had a book exchange and of course lots of sugary treats.

Luke's Christmas party at preschool. He is showing me his reindeer food to put out on Christmas Eve for Santa's reindeer.

The kids Christmas pageant at our church, First Presbyterian. It was so cute. Luke was a sheep but he wouldn't wear the ears, too itchy. He then insisted on bringing a stuffed animal, the initial one he chose was Clifford, as in the Big RED dog. I thought, um, no. So after much "discussion" I convinced him to bring Molly instead because she looked like a sheep.

Amelia was a Roman citizen and walked up the aisle, pointed at the big star and shouted, "Look at that very bright star!" It was a beautiful performance of a Roman citizen :) Luke's big line was BAA, but he got a little stage fright and just bee lined for the front of church and sat down. It was so sweet to watch them and hear their little voices singing, "Away in a Manger" and "Little Town of Bethlehem." Christmas pageants are such a fun part of the season.

Busy Weekend!

On Saturday night we went to Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama with our church. It was absolutely beautiful. Bellingrath Gardens is a 65 acre garden and it was filled with 3 million lights and 835 lit displays. I loved this train and look at my awesome photography skills with it reflecting off of the lake.

Amelia and Sophie loved this rainbow display with the unicorn. It reminded me a little bit of growing up in the 80's with My Little Ponies and Rainbow Brite. Another note, look at Amelia and how bundled she insisted on getting. I swear it was like 53 degrees that night, come on Mimi, you were born in Chicago!

Sophie, Ben, Amelia and Luke, this was the best picture I got of the four of them. They were too busy running around, saying, look at this and that to stop and pose for pictures.

As fun as it was: Note to self, walking around a GIGANTIC garden when you are 8 1/2 months pregnant and GIGANTIC yourself, is not the best idea.

Sorry, this post is out of order. After my shower, before the light show, the kids met Cynthia and I downtown for a trolley ride. It was a cute, little ride around town and they gave the kids hot chocolate. Which, on second thought, giving kids five and under a steaming hot liquid while bouncing around a moving trolley might not be the best idea. Oh well, tis the season. Totally different thought, don't Amelia and Mckenzie (far right) look like they could be sisters?? Freaky.

Ready to take the trolley ride.

Oh Baby!

On Saturday, these wonderful ladies threw me a baby shower for Addison Kate. The shower was at Martha's Tea Room and we had a delicious breakfast. I had such a fun time and Addison received so many adorable outfits and keepsakes. Thank you to all my dear friends, I am so glad you all came to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Addison Kate.

My crafty friends. Marian made me this beautiful diaper cake and the top little poof was a really cute baby outfit! My friends are much more creative than I am.

Kristen also made me a gorgeous diaper cake and look at this cake topper! It is a preggers "super mom" which is fitting for any poor soul who saw me in my wonder woman costume last year at Halloween!

Thank you so much to Cynthia, Blake and Kristen who planned this shower for me. You guys are the best and I had such a great time. Thanks for being such wonderful friends.

More Christmas Fun!

On Saturday night we were lucky enough to hitch a ride on our friends' boat to see the Biloxi Boat parade. All the boats decorate their boats with Christmas lights and play Christmas music and some even had Santa to wave to the kids. The night ends with a firework show. I know it seems weird that we are able to go out on a boat in December but it is a cool perk of living in the south. However, I have to say we have become quite wimpy since living down here. I think it was about 48 degrees that night and the way were dressed you would have thought it was about 20 below. I took about 20 pictures of the boats but clearly I am not a very good photographer and/or do not know how to work my camera. Unfortunately this is the best shot I got, but you get the idea. One boat even had a coordinating light/music show, it was so cool.

On Sunday, we had a Holiday Tea at Mary Mahoney's in Biloxi. It was a very cute event, with crafts for the kids and of course Santa, Mississippi style. The kids had cute, little tea sandwiches, fruit and yummy treats and cookies for lunch.

Enjoying our lunch.

Santa is coming to town!

Santa came to downtown Ocean Springs last night on the firetruck. I was in the line to visit Santa before he arrived (ever the practical one) when the firetruck pulled up. Amelia went running over to the firetruck with a bunch of friends to get a closer look, Luke decided to stay with me. Amelia came running back to me as fast as she could a few minutes later, jumping up and down and yelling, "Mom, mom, he's really here, he's really here!" It was so cute, one of those moments I wish I could capture forever. So here we are with the big man, Luke decided he needed Mommy up there too. Funny how Santa and I seem to match in our jackets and our girth this year, funny or very, very sad.
It was a fun event with carolers, cookies and the kids even got to write letters to Santa and mail them. Amelia only had one request, a toy dog. Luke wanted a pirate ship, a new truck, a lion cub and a flag. Your guess is as good as mine on that last one, I think he just started looking around and saw the flag pole and thought he might as well add that too.

The kids had fun running around hyped up on cookies with their buddies. Both my kids came home exhausted and with muddy knees so it was definitely a fulfilling night.

Just Like Daddy!

Luke picked out a kid's shaving kit at the store the other day and has loved shaving, "Just like Daddy does." What a big boy!

We Elfed Ourselves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Strike!

Yesterday I took the kids bowling for the first time. I haven't been bowling in probably15 years and let's just say, it's not like riding a bike. I didn't break 100 and I think I really should have used the bumpers in the gutters like the kids. Here is Amelia getting ready. She was so cute. She wanted to do it all by herself so she would kind of drop/push the ball and it would roll like one rotation every 2 minutes. It took about 10 minutes to get down the lane and then it would lightly tap one pin over and she would get all excited.

Luke loved bowling too and wanted my help to push his ball. He would say, "a one and a two and a one,two, three" and then we would push it down the lane. Sadly, this technique worked so well that Luke's score was only a few pins less than mine. Pretty pitiful on my part. I'll blame it on the big pregnant belly I guess.

The new bowling league! This place was great because it's completely non-smoking! Hooray, it was so nice to walk into a bowling alley and not have this weird blue haze envelope you like I remember as a kid. The best part, it was only $20 for bowling, shoes and pizza! Can't beat that deal.

The kids both passed out cold in the car on the way home and Luke decided that wasn't enough. He crawled from the garage, through the kitchen and collapsed here in the family room and slept for another 45 minutes. I think I'll take him bowling every day!

Princess Red Bird and a rough night.

I love this picture of Luke. He had just woken up and I couldn't stop laughing about his hair. He looks like he had a really rough night and was trying to recover or like he is about to flip me the bird.

Amelia came off the bus on Friday dressed like this. She was super excited to tell me how she made the shirt and necklaces. Her class had been learning about Native Americans all week and her Native American name was Princess Red Bird. She told me ( I kid you not), "Mom the first tribe to have thanksgiving were the Wompanoag tribe." I said, "Huh?" Amelia said, "The Wompanoag tribe." She said it with perfect pronunciation because I of course had to go look it up on the Internet, she was right again. Thank goodness my kids are school age because I get to learn this stuff all over again. It's sad, not only am I not Smarter than a 5th Grader, I am not even smarter than my kindergartner.

Fat Little Turkey

Luke at his Thanksgiving Feast at St. Paul's Preschool today. Well actually that doesn't look like much of a feast but they did serve the kids turkey, cranberries, mashed potatoes and beans. Although, I think Luke only ate his smarties anyway. I love the place mats they made, so cute with their little hand prints for the feathers.

Luke showing off his turkey costume. His class was so adorable all dressed as turkeys. His class sang, "Fine Fat Turkeys Are We" and "See My Feathers Colored Bright." It was so cute, especially when they all yelled gobble, gobble, gobble.

Luke with his class, looking a little shell shocked at all the parents holding up video cameras and cameras. Luke was very excited after his class was done to come sit with me and he told me, "Mom, shhh, we are in God's house" because his program was held in the church.

Career Possibilities?

Amelia and best bud Benji are taking golf lessons at the beautiful Preserve Golf Club. They were so cute out there together.

This is Mr. Marshall helping Amelia line up her putt. In the hour lesson, the kids practiced their swing while teeing off, practiced their putts and even played a hole. They were very excited but I think their favorite part was riding in the golf cart with Mr. Marshall.

Luke enjoyed his favorite thing this weekend also, playing firefighter. One of the local fire stations had a demonstration for our mom's group and Luke was in heaven. As you can see, he wore all his gear and had a fun time climbing around in the trucks and playing with the fire hoses. The firefighters even put on all their gear and let the kids spray them down with the hoses. That was a big hit! The morning after the demonstration Luke came in my room at 6am and said, "Mommy, this is how you stop, drop and roll if your clothes are on fire," as he proceeded to roll around on my floor. I am certainly glad he was listening but I would have preferred my tutorial a little later in the day.

Happy Halloween!

Last night was trick or treating and we gathered up a group of friends and took over the neighborhood. The kids were all for it this year. Amelia was the first up to the door every time, no matter how scary it was decorated. After the first three houses where she knocked and then proceeded to open the door and yell trick or treat in the house, I had to go over some ground rules with her. Luke made it about halfway around the neighborhood and then got tired and hung out in the wagon eating Skittles. Not such a bad deal, I guess.

Amelia's school doesn't do a Halloween party but instead Fall de Rah. The kids are supposed to all dress "down on the farm." The school provides hay rides and lots of fall fun so she had a great day.

Luke had his first school Halloween party and enjoyed it thoroughly. What's not to like about cookies, cupcakes, and candy. We had the kids play games like "hot pumpkin" instead of hot potato and do some crafts.

It was a fun, sweet filled day and thankfully they slept great last night in a little sugar coma.

Busy Week!

Our recent trips to the beach have left us with a plethora of oyster shells so we decided to pretty them up by painting them. The kids were quite creative, we have a Mardi Gras shell, a Packer shell, pumpkin shell and of course lots of red shells because Luke thinks the whole world should be painted red. When we ran out of shells, we moved to pinecones which are covering our backyard right now.

The YMCA had a Halloween party for the kids with a costume contest, face painting, pumpkin painting, cake walk, etc. The kids had lots of fun, we threw together costumes 10 minutes before it started so no prizes for us:( They still looked cute. I especially like Amelia's biker boots with the cowgirl outfit.

With three of us in "our crew" having birthdays in October, we try to get us all together to celebrate. We dined at Al Fresco, an Italian restaurant downtown, this week. Thankfully we sat outside because I think we could be heard all over town with our laughter and naughty gossip. Oh well, girls will be girls at any age I guess. Happy Birthday Kristen, Marian and me!

Also this week, I had an ultrasound done early in the week and the midwife still saw girl parts so Addison is still Addison. The midwife kept saying, "Wow, this girl has long legs, wow she loves showing off her legs, etc." Addison would not cooperate with showing us the money shot until 20 minutes later when we finally were about to give up, she just kept flashing those long, lanky legs. It was fun to see her and great to hear her healthy heartbeat.

Funny observations: Luke was sitting on my lap while I was on the computer this week and on the screen was a picture of Obama. Luke pointed to him and said, "Mommy, look, is that Daddy?" I said, "Ah, no that is a man named Obama who is running for president." Luke responded, "Well, he has big ears like Daddy."

True, however, Daddy is not a black man. I guess Stephen has been gone long enough if our son can't remember if his Dad is black or white.

Lil soccer feet and Grandma visits!

Grandma Nancy came for a visit this past week and the kids had a great time playing with her and showing her all of our favorite hang outs.
Amelia and Luke both had their first soccer games this past weekend. For Luke, it was his first soccer game ever, an all three year old team. This picture is a misrepresentation of the actual events of Luke's first game because it looks like he is actually playing soccer. He was very excited to play soccer and lined up for the first kick and all the kids started screaming and yelling at once to go after the ball. In addition all the parents and coaches started shouting, "No, kick it this way, no this way, etc." Poor Luke took one look at all the commotion and started crying and running toward me. So he spent half the game sitting next to me. The picture above is him standing on the field about 4 feet from me. I told him he had to be on the field and participate with his team if he wanted the team snack at the end of the game. So he stood in that exact spot the whole second half, clapping for his team as they raced from one end of the field to the other. And he gladly gobbled up his snack with the team after it was all over. Whew, there is always next week to try again.
Amelia sandwiched between her friends and teammates Mckenzie and Hayden. They have a mostly girl team and do really well. Amelia has gotten the hang of soccer this year. Last year she spent her time running along the sideline waving to us but this year she is right in the pack, kicking, pushing and getting covered in mud and grass for her efforts. Stephen would be very proud to watch his little soccer protege. Although, I think she still plays just for the snack too.
Our friends had a great Halloween party this past weekend complete with a haunted maze in their back property. It was a fun time for the kids and adults, with lots of yummy food and fun activities for the kids. My mom and I dressed as doctors/nurses in scrubs. Basically, I took the comfy excuse for a costume and just wanted to wear whatever would cover this huge belly.